Peter Link (songwriter and Broadway composer)

Peter Link is an American composer, lyricist, music producer, stage director, and presently CEO/Creative Director of Watchfire Music, an on-line Inspirational record company and music store. During his career, which spans over 40 years, he has been nominated twice for the Tony Award, including Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor and Joseph Papp’s production of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, won the NY Critics' Drama Desk Award for Salvation out of which came his first million-selling record, "(If You Let Me Make Love to You Then) Why Can't I Touch You?", and worked, mainly as a composer in a number of entertainment mediums ranging from pop music to Broadway, television, ballet, films and Inspirational music. Link was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He is the son of Lyman Link, a Canadian survivor of World War I and musician turned accountant, and Virginia Anderson Link, originally from Chicago, Illinois. He has one brother, James Charles Link, (deceased) an accountant also from St. Louis. He grew up in Kirkwood, Missouri attending Osage Hills Elementary School, Nipher Middle School and Principia Upper School graduating from high school in 1962. He then attended the University of Virginia on a track and soccer scholarship for one year and finished up his college education as an English major at Principia College where he graduated in 1966 and has repeatedly provided externship sponsorships to the school's students. Having conducted school choirs, directed musical productions and excelled as a drummer throughout his early childhood, he decided to concentrate on directing musicals, so he moved to New York City and studied acting for two years at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater under Sanford Meisner and graduated in 1968. Upon graduation from The Neighborhood Playhouse, Peter had immediate success as an actor, performing in 10 national network commercials that first summer and landing the role of Tom Hughes in CBS Television’s soap opera As the World Turns, playing legendary soap star Eileen Fulton’s son in the autumn of 1968. He also played a small part in Neil Simon’s feature film, The Out-of-Towners, directed by Arthur Hiller and starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis. In the winter of 1969, while still working on As The World Turns, Peter was cast as the lead in Hair on Broadway taking over for writer and original lead, Gerome Ragni, in the role of Berger and playing opposite both Heather MacRae and Diane Keaton. He left Hair to perform one of the two leading roles in his own musical, Salvation, in the spring of 1969 when the show moved uptown to the Jan Hus Theater Salvation proved to be Link's last stage performance, and he moved instead towards a music oriented career. While performing in both Hair and As The World Turns simultaneously, Link composed the music for the rock musical Salvation, collaborating with lyricist and bookwriter, C.C. Courtney. The show debuted at Art D'Lugoff’s Village Gate. The musical was first directed by Link and performed late at night, at 11:00 pm four nights a week, after the long-running Jacques Brel performances. It opened on March 11, 1969 and was given a positive review by New York Times columnist Lawrence Van Gelder. It was then picked up by producer David Black, who had produced George M!, and moved to the Jan Hus Playhouse for its Off-Broadway run, starting on September 24, 1969 and ending on April 19, 1970 for 239 performances. Out of the show came the hit recorded by Ronnie Dyson, of Hair, "(If You Let Me Make Love To You Then) Why Can't I Touch You?", which sold over a million copies, hitting the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1970 and launched Dyson's recording career. Link received the Drama Desk Award for most promising composer for his work on Salvation. Link and Courtney then collaborated on Earl of Ruston, which opened Mar 10, 1974, a country-western musical that flopped on Broadway. Citing creative differences, Link left the show before it opened. Joseph Papp, producer of The New York Shakespeare Festival, hired Link to be Composer-in-Residence at the Shakespeare Festival and The Public Theater. There, Link refined his abilities as a composer for the musical theater and for the next five years composed music for over 40 shows. Notable are: John Ford Noonan’s Older People (a Drama Desk Award winner) starring Barnard Hughes and Will Hare; the rock opera, The Wedding of Iphigenia with Nell Carter, Andrea Marcovicci, Marta Heflin which also played at the Young Vic in London; The Orphan with Cliff DeYoung; Comedy Of Errors with Linda Lavin, Don Scardino and Michael Tucker; and Trelawny of the 'Wells' at the Lincoln Center with Meryl Streep, John Lithgow, Mandy Patinkin, Michael Tucker and Mary Beth Hurt and directed by A. J. Antoon. While also at the Public Theater, Link composed the score for Joseph Papp's Much Ado About Nothing, which was presented at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park on Broadway and also as a CBS Television Special. This was the longest running Shakespeare production to ever run on Broadway and won for Link his first Tony Award Nomination. The show was directed by A. J. Antoon and starred Sam Waterston, Kathleen Widdoes and Barnard Hughes. Much Ado About Nothing began its Broadway run at the Winter Garden Theatre in NYC Nov 11, 1972. On the same weekend Link had his second Broadway show open within three days. That was Michael Cacoyannis’ production of Lysistrata starring Melina Mercouri. Not nearly as successful as Much Ado was, Lysistrata received negative reviews and closed in four days. Next Link, again collaborated with director A. J. Antoon, when he composed the score for Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor which opened Nov 27, 1973 to mostly positive reviews. It starred Christopher Plummer, Marsha Mason, Barnard Hughes, Francis Sternhagen and René Auberjonois and won for Link yet another Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score in 1974. Following his second major success, Link became established as a composer of Broadway plays featuring cinematic scores. Link followed with scores for Ulysses in Nighttown which opened Mar 10, 1974 under the direction of Burgess Meredith, starring Zero Mostel and also James Lipton’s production of The Mighty Gents written by Richard Wesley and starring Dorian Harewood with then newcomer Morgan Freeman which opened on April 16, 1978. Link also composed the musical score for King of Hearts which opened on Broadway October 22, 1978 during the NY newspaper strike of 1978. Though the show was well reviewed in the Boston press, the NY reviews were mixed and the production was hampered by the newspaper strike. The show has been produced often since its Broadway debut and received a rave review from the NY Times during its 2002 production at the Goodspeed Opera. On Broadway, the show starred Don Scardino, Bob Gunton and Millicent Martin. After the Broadway and Off-Broadway success of Salvation, Link continued to work in theaters outside of the Broadway Box. The River, a collage of rock, rap and pop gospel, extolling water in spiritual and metaphorical terms and paralleling the cycle of water and the life cycle of man, opened at the Promenade Theater in January 1988. It received a mostly favorable review from Mel Gussow of the NY Times. The River won a number of the off-Broadway TOR Awards not only for Best Musical, but also won for Mr. Link Best Director and Best Composer/Lyricist. Island opened to rave reviews December 1978 at The Milwaukee Repertory Theater with book, music and lyrics by Link drawn from Brent Nicholson Earle's concept and starring Chad Mitchell and Jenny Burton. The show was later produced at The Portland Stage Company in 1980-81 and The Virginia Stage Company. On The Road To Babylon was a rock musical which opened to mixed reviews December 1979 at The Milwaukee Rep with book by Richard Wesley and music and lyrics by Link drawn from a concept by Brent Nicholson Earle. Sundown is a contemporary country